Arsenal: The 5 big reasons why Unai Emery was fired

4. Too conservative

When Roy Hodgson took over the reins at Liverpool, he continued to manage one of the elite teams in the Premier League as if they were a middling one looking to smash-and-grab their way to a top-half finish. Hodgson, as he has proved with Fulham, Crystal Palace and Switzerland, is an excellent manager when he has a worse team, but he failed to impose an offensive, dominating style when he had the superior team.

Unai Emery suffered from this same problem at Arsenal. Where at Sevilla and Valencia he could set his team up defensively as they battled against the might of Barcelona and Real Madrid, at Arsenal, he needed to implement an attacking, controlling identity that allowed his team to impose themselves on their opposition over and over again. But he couldn’t. He was too conservative, too defensive.

It is this tactical tendency that meant Arsenal did well against other good teams. Emery is very adept at setting his team to up to defend. It is why he has enjoyed great success in the Europa League. But against lesser teams, when the onus is on his team to attack, to create, to dominate matches week after week after week, he lacked the freedom of expression required.